Productivity is all about how much you can produce. Every person must remain productive until his or her death. You might think that that is impossible but it's not. We have been born here to be productive, to work and to act. And we have to continue acting and being productive until our last breath.
Productivity and Success
Productivity is a measure of success. The more productive a person is, the more successful they are. Productivity is not a constant or a fixed factor. It is variable. Which means you can augment or diminish productivity. So, if you feel you are not very successful, do not feel depressed. There is always a way of increasing your productivity and your chances of success. Do take heart! You may be young or old, a woman or a man, Ivy League educated or a graduate of an ordinary university or even just a high-school graduate, or anything else …. it does not matter. You can still improve your productivity levels to become more successful and prosperous.
Rely on Yourself to Increase Your Productivity
The aim of this article is to change your perspectives, your attitudes and the way you think and perceive yourself, so that others perceive you in a new light. Many people go to shrinks nowdays or take the help of counselers to overcome personal problems and failures but there is actually no need for that. There is no need to spend valuable money for enhancing your own abilities, to get over touchy and painful issues. This article is enough to gear you up, to boost you so that you can tackle any difficulty or even a blow that may come your way. I am not saying that counselors and shrinks only take money for nothing or are useless. I am saying that every person should make a sincere attempt to depend on himself or herself. And if you learn to have faith in yourself and in your own abilities, you will not need any pep talk from others. You will be able to guide yourself through difficult situations without buckling under pressure. There's a saying, 'when the going gets tough, the tough get going!' If you read this article carefully, I promise you will become tough, productive and successful.
How Do You Define Productivity?
Productivity means different things to different people. Tell me, what does it mean to you? Never copy others' definitions. Remember that you are special. So you must stick to your own definition of productivity. If productivity to you means being a brilliant doctor, so be it. If it stands for running a business well, that's fine. And if it means that you want to have a good homemaker and rear kids, that's excellent. It's your definition that matters. If you wish to be a fruit-seller in your heart of hearts but are too ashamed to admit that to anyone because your brother is a rocket scientist, you're doing yourself a great harm. One, because you're not proud of what you'd like to do and two, if you try to follow in your brother's footsteps, you'll never be productive. Instead, you'll be a total failure.
We Are All Productive
Remember, every person born on this planet is productive. * This is an indisputable truth. Those who seem to us to be unproductive and unsuccessful are in reality, not unproductive. They are just in the wrong profession. They do not know what is good for them, have not discovered their own calling. But that does not mean that they do not have any calling. No. Everyone is talented in some way or the other. Some of us discover our latent abilities early in life and some of us, late. And the sad part is that some of us never manage to discover what we are good at. This happens due to lack of coaching and guidance. But those who are unsuccessful should never think themselves to be good-for-nothings. Because everyone is useful on this planet.
[* Those who are born with disabilities of various kinds can also be trained to be productive. Those who are born with disabilities and are completely bed-ridden or are bed-ridden because they are terminally ill should not be classified as unproductive. They are sick, that's all. They should all be made to feel positive until their last.]
30 and Still Unproductive?
So, if you are 30+ and still feel that you are unsuccessful, go through the following self-examination:
• Check what you are good at, what you'll feel nice doing. Remember, every person is good at doing something. It can not be that a person is good at nothing. You are just pessimistic or ignorant of your own abilities if you say that you are good at nothing. Be patient with yourself and find out what you are good at doing. It does not have to be anything great. It can be temping in a library or running a hairdressing salon. Half the people spend time trying to be great and end up doing nothing. So, do not run after greatness. Just think of what you can do well and stick to it. Although they may not be famous, nurses, clerks, shop assistants, telephone operators and manual labors have a huge contribution on this planet. So, what's wrong if you want to be someone like them? Learn to respect and be yourself.
• A job is only considered to be bad and a crime if it is illegal, criminal in nature, illicit or immoral. If a job does not fall into any of these categories, it can not be bad or lowly. If you think any decent job such as nursing, or working as a secretary or clerk, or a laborer in a factory to be low, it means you do not know how to give dignity to labor. You definitely need to shed some of your old ideas and snobbishness, if that's the case. If you do not know how to give respect to the professions of others, others will also not respect your profession. That is perhaps one of the reasons why you feel unsuccessful. Respect others and they will respect you.
• Always have faith in yourself. Always understand and believe that you have immense potential in you, far more than what you've ever imagined. Because it is true. The difference between productive people and you is very small. Productive people believe this and you do not. That's just about the only difference. And yet such a small difference can make such a great difference! Helen Keller was deaf, dumb and blind but she did not give up. She struggled on to become one of the most inspiring figures of the 20th century. So, what's stopping you?
• What exactly are your problems? Are you bogged down by relationship problems? Do you think you're stressed out? Are you short of money? Whatever your problem is, just zero in on it. Grapple the bull by the horns. Lack of money is not a problem. Money will come if you start working somewhere, part-time or full-time. Relationships are more complicated to handle. I would advise you not to let them come in your way. Keep them but do not harp on them or let them become obstacles to your job or work. That way, you'll be more productive, successful, stress free and surprisingly, you'll be able to handle your relationships better.
Eating Well is Necessary for Improving Productivity
It may sound frivolous but it's true. Eating is one of the greatest joys of life. Eating one's favorite dishes automatically makes one feel cheerful and ready for action. If you skip out on your meals before going to work, you'll not perform as well at the workplace. So, be sure that you are fortified with a heavy meal before you sit down to work. Eating rejuvenates a jaded mind. Drinking coffee is helpful for sleepyheads. Caffeine helps one to keep awake. So, if you have a project to finish or a job to do through the night, drink lots of coffee so that you can get through without sleep. However, drinking too much coffee can be bad for the health. So, restrict yourself to a maximum of three cups every day.
Never Stop Working
Remember, Ora et Labora or Work is Worship. Never quit working. Carry on with some job or the other. There's nothing like retirement in today's world. There are enough jobs for retired people. It is preferred that you do some work that gives you money. Earning money gives a person a sense of achievement, a sense of respect. It is not important how much you earn, as you will see that pay and productivity are not connected. But it is important that you earn something. Earning money is getting paid by an external source. Which means that the external party pays you because they find you capable of doing the particular work well. This assessment by an external party and the consequent monetary reward boosts a person's morale. Back home, you can always do your own gardening, cooking, housecleaning, shopping, painting, play computer games, etc. But you must do some work, part-time or full-time, that pays you. Retired people can always babysit, teach part-time in schools or colleges, if they are qualified enough, or work in libraries. If they are entrepreneurial, they can even start their own businesses. They can also work for charitable organizations for a nominal pay. Remember, you must always remain productive, irrespective of your age.
Age and Productivity Are Not Linked
It is true that you may not be able to run like a twenty year old or slog like a forty year old when you are seventy. It is true that with age, the body develops many snags and diseases that prevent you from working like a normal young woman or man. But with age, you also acquire wisdom and maturity, qualities rarely seen in younger people. This new acquisition should teach you to age with dignity. Though some say that the mind decays with age, that the brain is no longer that alert or can no longer remember so much, you can always increase your brain power by keeping your mind active through work, reading, writing, studying, playing games like Sudoku and other activities, which involve your mind. So take up some job for which you need to use your mind without taxing it too much so you never fall prey to forgetfulness or depression. (While these activities can revive your mind, they can not prevent you from acquitting mentally debilitating diseases such as amnesia, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, etc.) But why are you thinking of the worst? The majority of aged people do not suffer from such maladies. Aged people have more experience. They make good teachers, administrators, politicians and consultants. Jessica Tandy won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Driving Miss Daisy when she was 80 years old. Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 2007 when she was 88 years old. Think positively. Your productivity will automatically be high, no matter how old you are.
Pay and Productivity Are Not Linked
It may seem strange to you but pay and productivity are really not linked. Your payment is reliable and consist of the amount of money that you earn, an amount, which is a certain percentage of what your organization earns. Productivity is intangible unless it is converted into tangible items such as the number of products you managed to sell, the number of contracts you procured, or how much profit you helped your company make. But what about the productivity of teachers in a special school? How are you going to assess that? Productivity then becomes wholly intangible and translates into a feeling of well-being. How many special children smiled at your joke? How many spastics could you train to walk? Could you teach a spastic child to draw? If you could, you'd feel extremely satisfied and happy somewhere inside you and know that you have been truly productive. Now do you understand that pay and productivity are actually not linked without productivity is forcibly converted into measurable items? (Productivity can be forcibly quantified only in certain professions of the corporate world. Where professions deal with humans {teaching, medicine, law} or abstract things {painting, music, acting}, it is well nigh impossible to quantify productivity. Exists for all persons and professions even if it can not be quantified.)
It is the same for teachers in normal schools, professors, doctors, nurses. A good teacher's productivity may be measured by the performance of his or her class in a particular examination. A great teacher's productivity is immeasurable as a great teacher is capable of changing mindsets, influencing societies and enlightening populations. Can The Buddha's productivity ever be assessed in monetary terms? A good doctor cures his or her patients and may even charge high fees for doing so. A great doctor does not bother about fees. The only reward a great doctor seeks is the welfare of his or her patients. Do you think Hippocrates or Galen or Albert Schweitzer bothered about fees? They would not have been remembered if they had.
Always Do Your Best
Just because I'm citing the examples of Helen Keller, Buddha, Hippocrates, Galen and Albert Schweitzer, it does not mean I'm urging you to become like them. The Buddha had said: 'Admire great people from a distance but always be yourself.' Be what you are and learn to respect yourself for what you are. This will increase your self-esteem and confidence and will help you do your best. Whether you're cooking or drawing or polishing someone's shoes or babysitting, always do your best. That is very important. Never compare yourself with others. Remember that your best is something that you must cherish.
Never Feel Disheartened
There will be problems and troubles galore. They are only part of life. Do not try to shy away from problems. Take them in stride, as opportunities presented to you to test your strength and bring out your hidden potential, your fighting spirit and so that you might learn from them. Remember, you have to learn to take the rough with the smooth.
Be Disciplined
Like productivity, discipline means different things to different people. For some, it may mean getting up at 5 am every morning and going for a jog. For others it may mean getting up at 8 am and working every day until 1 am. When instilling discipline in yourself, do not be too harsh on yourself. Do not try to do things that are strenuous or that might make you feel uncomfortable. If getting up at 5 am in the morning is tiresome for you, it will decrease your productivity and thus defeat your whole purpose.
Discipline is not about jogging or cycling or eating less or getting up at dawn. It's about working consistently, not getting angry, not while away time doing things that are harmful for you, and not being lazy.
You might lose your temper once in a blue moon. But if you find yourself angry every day, you're not disciplined and have to check yourself. If you laze about on Sunday, it's perfectly okay. But if you laze around every day of the week, there's something seriously wrong with you. Either you are ill and need to consult a doctor immediately. Or you are not liking your job in which case you have to change it to something more likeable and that will keep you occupied throughout the week. Or you are being reckless, wanton and depraved with yourself and have to check yourself strictly. Because if you continue this way, you'll be finished.
Smoking too much and drinking too much is being indisciplined. It is best to be a teetotaler and a non-smoker but if that's not possible, you can smoke a bit and drink a bit.
Be Creative and Accept Challenges
Even if your job's a very boring one, try to make it creative so that you enjoy doing it. In most large organizations, supervisors and senior managers are trained to make jobs creative and challenging enough for their subordinates. This article teachers you to be innovative on the job so that you are never bored in case you do not work for such organizations. If you are an assembly-line worker in a small factory, try to think how you can improve your skills on the job. Talk to others during lunchtime. Such diversions are essential. Discuss with your co-workers how you can improve the functioning of the assembly line. Approach your boss if you have a concrete plan. You can always play interesting games during breaks. Even small factories are particular about giving their employees breaks nowdays so that they are not overworked. Always accept new challenges because challenges make jobs interesting. Instead of uniting with the other employers to strike and pick if a manager has decided to buy a new machine or change an existing policy, accept the change as a challenge and use your creative skills to see how you can over it. How can you make yourself more useful so that you remain at the job despite the change? What about learning new skills on the new machine? This may help you to upgrade your existing skills and get a better job!
If your job demands that you interact with people, there are practically no limits to the innovations you can make. Every new patient poses a new challenge to a doctor and a nurse. Every incorrigible student is a new challenge for a teacher. Every difficult customer is a new test for a salesperson or a shop assistant. Every complaint client is a new trial for a lawyer. Every adamant bookworm is a new challenge for a librarian. And the list goes on and on …… You should not run away from challenges. You should stand firm in the face of challenges and appeavor to surmount them. That is the real test of productivity. Remember, you will feel productive and successful if you can conquer obstacles, rise above unsuccessful situations. Such incidents will give you an infinite sense of achievement. Having things easy and your own way will not make you feel productive. That's why some of the richest youngsters of the world suffer from depression. They've got everything that you can ask for on a platter as they've been born with silver spoons in their mouths. So, they suffer as they feel that they have not achieved anything themselves.
Be Adventurous or Go for a Holiday
It's the same reason why people go for trekking, mountaineering, bungee jumping, rock climbing, paragliding and other adventurous sports. Such activities give them a sense of accomplishment along helping them to take refreshing breaks from continuous work. I will not say that you have to participate in such activities. But if you can, it will definitely lift your spirits and do you good. However, if you are new to these activities, always ensure that you have an expert or a professional or a guide with you for your safety. A broken limb or a skull fraction or death will certainly not help you to increase your productivity! Beside, you can always refresh yourself and increase your productivity by watching a good film or by going for a short vacation if you have the money. Though these will not help you to feel that you've achieved something, they will never help you to take a break from the daily humdrum of life.
Never Quit Studying
You might be middle-aged and pot bellied but you must never give up on your studies. Get into the habit of studying and going to the library every now and then. Never think that studying ends at the University. People should study regularly to learn more and upgrade their skills. There is really no end to the amount that you can learn. If a doctor thinks that his or her education begins and ends at medical school, he or she will never be able to practice medicine. New diseases are being diagnosed every day and new medicines are evolving every day to tackle the new ailments. If a doctor or a surgeon does not keep himself or herself updated constantly on the latest developments in his or her own branch of medicine, he or she will soon be out of job and out of practice. The same holds true with a teacher or a professor. In fact, the same holds true for every person in every profession. So keep studying, learning, and adding to your knowledge until your last day. You will be a productive human being that way.
Use Meeting Diary
Meeting Diary is a wonderful application that helps you to hone your skills and improve your productivity. It has been designed cleverly to assist the human brain. Meeting Diary has been made in a way so that it can bring the best out of you. It helps you to be a leader and be highly productive as well as increase the productivity of others around you. Log into Meeting Diary to increase your productivity exponentially.